A bus was engulfed in flames on Tuesday morning in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, killing 17 and injuring 32. Police have captured the suspected arsonist, 33-year-old Ma Yongping. According to local media, Ma took such radical action to seek revenge against society due to a financial dispute with a subcontractor over a migrant settlement project. 

In two letters, claimed to be written by Ma, he said he had failed in every endeavor to demand money owed to him over the past three years. So far, we are unable to verify the letters.

This is the worst case of arson in an act of retaliation since 2013, when a fire killed 47 people on bus in Xiamen, Fujian Province. The new case has shocked the entire nation. Ma committed an unpardonable crime. Even if he has sympathetic hardship, it is not an excuse to maliciously burn innocent civilians.

The Internet was fraught with denunciations of Ma yesterday, a scene different from a few years ago when voices defending and sympathizing with criminals quickly spread on the Internet in view of cases of revenge against society by disadvantaged groups. Now people have reached a consensus that they should unconditionally condemn these cases of revenge if they occur. 

Undeniably, China, which is in the process of reform, has myriad social problems. If people resort to violence and seek revenge against society once their demands cannot be satisfied, this is actually drawing back society to the law of the jungle. It will have subversive and destructive effects on the order of society.

One must take legal channels to solve problems or correct wrongs. When people from the grass roots face difficulties, government and society should offer a helping hand to those who suffered the injustice. In no way can society encourage or instigate people to take extreme approaches to revenge.

When we denounce merciless killing, those who are responsible for the tragedy must also be held accountable and punished. Every administrator of grass-roots affairs must do their job. When they fail people's expectations, they are sowing the seeds of danger for society. A few years ago, cyber opinion had given out misleading signals, making people who held these fantasies of revenge believe that they would find sympathy, even if their actions killed people.

To root out malicious acts of killing like this, we need joint efforts of authority and public opinion. While criminals must be cracked down upon, the potential perpetrators must be deterred.